Essay writing is the most entertaining of activities you could be doing in school. It requires too much time to research, draft, revise, proofread and edit. And frankly, many students are just too lazy to want to take on any task that requires them to do more than an hour’s worth of work. If you consider yourself lazy then know that you are not alone. Here are some simple tips for writing an academic essay when you are lazy:

Read chapter summaries: If you’re lazy you probably don’t want to spend too much time reading entire chapters to books to find your information. The next best thing to do is to simply read the chapter summaries. Review any key terms and gather simple pieces of information. Don’t bother with note cards. Write everything down in a sort of free-flowing working draft page on your computer.

Write a concise and clear thesis: Once you have about a page’s worth of information you’re ready to write a thesis. Just keep things simple. Your writing should always be clear and concise, but your thesis should take this to the highest level. Don’t get complicated and get straight to the point. You won’t want to come back to revise this statement so be sure you get your point across accurately.

Create a simple outline: The outline you create for your paper should be pretty simple. Put your thesis at the beginning and write down three topic sentences you feel will support your central argument. You can simply review the content you have already written in your rough draft and take the three points you think are the strongest. These will be your topic sentences.

Start with the body paragraphs: Now to start writing your essay in earnest. It’s a good idea to get right down to the middle portion of your essay to begin with. Use your topic sentences and support each with a few sentences that provide evidence. You’re likely going to be pulling the same information from the content you have in your rough draft. That’s okay, just be sure to rewrite it in your own words.

Write your intro and conclusion: After you’ve written your body paragraphs you can go ahead and write your introduction and conclusion. Your introduction should just state your topic and some questions you are going to discuss in your writing. Your conclusion should summarize your content and show how you have succeeded in proving your argument.